Amazon’s Early Reviewer program: you might get paid a small amount to write an Amazon review

Amazon’s Early Reviewer program: you might get paid a small amount to write an Amazon review

Thanks to long time reader and commenter Lady Galaxy for calling my attention to the

Amazon’s Early Reviewer program (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

Customer reviews are clearly important to Amazon. Honestly, it’s one of the first things I check. I’m influenced by a high average, but there also has to be quite a few of them. A 5.0 average with 10 reviews isn’t as impressively to me as a 4.8 average with 200 reviews.

Authors know this, and often ask for reviews.

That’s fine with me…but it should be without compensation.

I have turned down people offering to send me a free copy of the book in exchange for an “honest review”. I feel obligated to reveal if someone has sent me a product and I’m writing about it…my understanding is that is actually how the IRS feels about it as well.

That said, it’s fine with me that people get paid for writing reviews…some book and movie reviewers in traditional media have had some of my favorite writing, and they deserve to be paid for it!

That’s different, though, from an author or publisher paying somebody to review their own book. That seems…I’m going to go with distasteful to me. If it’s revealed, I guess it’s ethical, but I don’t like the idea of it.

Amazon clearly thought a lot about this in designing the Early Reviewer Program.

You can’t choose to be part of it. Eligible people are chosen at random. What would make you ineligible? Having a history of having written reviews which don’t follow Amazon’s community guidelines.

You can’t even buy particular items hoping to be picked: it’s not revealed on an item’s product page that the seller had chosen to be part of the program.

Sellers, by the way, are prohibited from contacting reviewers…so they can’t influence them, either.

What happens if you do get picked and you do write a review?

You get compensated…they say it would be something small, like a $1-$3 Amazon gift card. Since it says it’s a random draw, it shouldn’t matter whether you’ve written an Early Reviewer review in the past.

Reviews will be badged as such, but I tried to search Amazon based on Early Reviewer reviews, and didn’t find anything.

Will this significantly increase the number of reviews? Well, they’d have to this a lot…that’s not that there are thousands of reviews on every product, but there are quite a few.

I have one major reservation which they don’t address on that page: I just don’t want this to apply to Amazon branded products. I don’t want them paying for reviews for Kindles, for example, or for Amazon-published books.

Outside of that, I’m fine with this.

What do you think? Does this seem reasonable to you? Would it influence your decision if a product had positive Early Reviewers review? What if it had negative ones? Have you been invited to write one of these reviews? If so, I’d be interested in what the product was, but don’t reveal anything you don’t want to reveal! I’d be particularly curious if it was a book, and if so, if it was a tradpub (traditionally published) book or an indie (independently published book)…

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Bufo’s Alexa Skills

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.  Shop ’til you help!  

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.

 

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New Echo Dot introduced

New Echo Dot introduced

I’m not always right (I thought publishers would embrace Amazon adding text-to-speech to the Kindle 2, since it means people get through books more quickly and will buy more…quite wrong there), but I have gotten a few good predictions in over the years.

This one was just from two days ago

Did Pew just find that nearly twice as many paperbooks are read as e-books?

but I wasn’t seeing much speculation along this line before I said it.

I said:

“Bonus thought: is a refresh coming to the Echo line? Amazon has announced a September 14th event of some kind for the UK, and some people think that might be the Echo coming to the UK. The Echo Dot (I use one every day) is no longer available, with no indication of when it might be coming back in stock.”

Well, today they introduced a new version of the Dot:

All-New Echo Dot (2nd Generation) – White (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

available for pre-order for October 20th. It also comes in black. The white is new, and can be a good option for some rooms, like many kitchens.

The Dot is the version of Amazon’s Echo without a big speaker. It doesn’t have a tinny speaker, which is fine for voice, but it will sound scratchy on music. Still, I use a Dot every day…we have one in the bedroom, and for one thing, it turns our lights on and off. It also gives me weather reports, tells me what’s on my calendar, and so on.

They’ve reduced the price to $49.99. You can also buy six for the price of five or 12 for the price of 10 (which is the same either way). That way, you could have one in each room…or give them as gifts.

If you want good sound, you can connect it to a Bluetooth or wired speaker. I use mine with

iClever BoostSound Portable IP65 Waterproof Outdoor/Shower Bluetooth Speaker with 12hr Playtime (iClever BoostSound Portable IP65 Waterproof Outdoor/Shower Bluetooth Speaker with 12hr Playtime)

which was a gift from our now adult kid.

I have it in the bathroom, and I like the interface a lot. Pairing it was easy and now, I just turned it on and in a second or two, the sound from my Dot is coming through it…even if I do that in the middle of a song. The sound is fine…and again, nice that it is waterproof.

The price for the speaker right now is $23.99, which is nice!

Besides coming in white, it’s a bit shorter, but I suspect there are more hardware changes, even without that many more software features.

Also, it comes with a new “ESP” (Echo Spatial Perception) feature…which will also come to the earlier Echoes in the near future.

It will enable an Echo to know if you are talking to it, or to another Echo.

That’s been a…challenge for us. The Echoes hear really well. When I say something to the one in the bedroom, the one in the family room usually hears me, too. That’s down a pretty long hallway and around a corner. Sometimes one of them hears me correctly and the one doesn’t, but they usually answer in harmony.

This is supposed to help with that issue, and to improve over time.

There are, by the way, more than 3,000 skills (like apps) available now! That’s up from about 1,000…just since June.

One more bit of Alexa news. The Echo is coming to the UK and Germany.

Bonus story: I read a Rizzoli and Isles novel by Tess Gerritsen:

Die Again (at AmazonSmile*)

I read a lot of things, but I don’t tend to read a lot of…well, let’s call them mainstream bestsellers. I’m not opposed to them…I’m not one of those people who thinks that if something is popular it isn’t good. 🙂

These are very popular mysteries, starring a police detective and a medical examiner.

They are a disparate pair, and that’s clearly part of the attraction…and what lead to a TV series based on them.

I did enjoy the book, and found it well written. Interestingly, though, the main characters were not the ones that made the book work the most for me. In fact, my Significant Other read the book also…and felt the same way. We both had some trouble telling them apart…even though they are supposed to very physically and temperamentally different. I would guess that if I gave most people a selection of quotations from the two characters, they would have difficulty assigning them correctly.

There were other characters and situations that were richly done.

I wonder if that’s normal in the series…that Rizzoli and Isles are more framing characters than the focus of the plot.

Speaking of the plot…I didn’t find the mystery all that difficult. I suspect I was aided in that by having some somewhat esoteric knowledge, but it’s an unusual mystery where I haven’t considered the proper solution…even if it’s only one of several things I’ve considered. In this case, I anticipated a couple of main elements.

Regardless, it was still worth reading for me. I liked a series of scenes set in Africa very much.

Back to more obscurities… 😉

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All aboard our new The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project! Do you have what it takes to be a Timeblazer?

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.  Shop ’til you help!  By the way, it’s been interesting lately to see Amazon remind me to “start at AmazonSmile” if I check a link on the original Amazon site. I do buy from AmazonSmile, but I have a lot of stored links I use to check for things.

Why don’t people write reviews of Kindle books?

Why don’t people write reviews of Kindle books?

I wrote last year about a neat trick I’d found:

New search tip: sort by Most Reviews

Recently, a reader, jubunam, noted that Mockingjay had fewer than 20,000 reviews, and wanted to know why.

It’s a reasonable question.

Back in 2012, it was being reported that 9 million copies of the book had been sold…and it’s continued to sell well since.

Not only has it sold, but it has been a popular title in

Kindle Unlimited (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

and presumably, many more people have read it than copies/licenses have been sold.

That’s true even with Kindle books (although reviews combine formats…paper and electronic reviews both  show up on both).

If I “buy the book” from the USA Kindle store (really, I license the reading rights), many people on my account could have read it…and with p-books, it’s been big in the used book market and checked out of public libraries (at least, that would be my assumption).

So, I think we can reasonably say that fewer than 1% of people who read Mockingjay posted a review on Amazon.

My guess would be that the percentage of readers posting reviews is typically much higher on one with fewer sales, especially indies (independently published books).

My sibling’s book,

One Murder More (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

has 63 customer reviews (with an average of 4.7 stars out of 5) at the time of writing…and I’ll say confidently that it hasn’t sold 63,000 copies/licenses. 🙂

So, I think since writing a review is so rare, it’s like a green sheep. The question becomes not, “Why are other sheep white?” but, “Why is that sheep green?” 😉

The question is, why do people write a review?

I think there are a few main reasons.

One is to support the book. That would seem like the most obvious one…you like the book, you want others  to read it, you write a review.

There is also the flipside: you want to warn people about what you think is a bad book.

You may also want to support the author or the publisher. This might not be the best book from that author/publisher, but you want to promote them more generally. I see this in reviews, “If you want to read a great book by so-and-so, read ‘X’…this is a good book, but not the best.” Similarly, if it’s a publisher with personality, you may want to promote them.

People write reviews to support (or oppose) a cause as well. The book is a symbol of something for you, and you take the advantage of the platform to voice your opinion.

Reviews may be written to support or oppose something that’s less of a cause, more of a policy…like the price of books, or the lack of the ability to lend a book.

Some people just like to write. 😉 Book reviews are one form of expression, and they are one that people see. On Amazon, you can get feedback on your reviews. You can have your review show up as a “most useful” review, for example.

There are people who see writing reviews as a kind of fame.

People also write reviews so that publishers will send them other books to review.

Some reviews are written because people have a financial interest in the book, or otherwise personally gain from the book selling. Those aren’t supposed to happen, and Amazon has gone after people who sell good reviews on Amazon (“For $5, I’ll give your book a 5-star review”).

For some people, it becomes a habit. They review every book they read.

I think those are probably the main reasons.

I’d say the main reason people don’t write reviews is…inertia, basically. It takes an effort to write a review, and if you do nothing, the net result is that you haven’t written one. That’s the default.

Let’s do a quick poll:

What do you think? Are there other reasons people write reviews? Do the number of reviews on a book influence you? Why have you or haven’t you written a review? Feel free to tell me and my readers what you think by commenting on this post.

Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.  Shop ’til you help!  

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other blogs/organizations, buy  Amazon Gift Cards from a link on the site, then use those to buy your items. There will be no cost to you, and a benefit to them.

Gold Box Deal: up to 75% off books for “students”

Gold Box Deal: up to 75% off books for “students”

I recently wrote recently wrote about how I like Amazon’s “Big Deal” (the current one goes through January 25th) on Kindle books, and I do. 🙂

However, I think I like another sale they do (more rarely) even better…their sales of hundreds of books for “students”!

I put the word “students” in quotation marks, because really, there are books here for a very wide variety of people. I would hope that people are always students, at any stage of life and in any profession.

This is a Gold Box Deal: it will only be good for today (although the books may go on sale again some time, of course), and may not apply in your country (I have readers all over the world).

Here it is:

Gold Box Deal of the Day: Save up to 75% on Kindle Books for Students (at AmazonSmile*)

Remember that these can also make good gifts. You can delay their delivery for a specific date, or you can have the gift e-mailed to yourself, print it out and save it. That makes it a good “emergency gift”. 🙂 Since this is a one day sale, I don’t have time to really describe each of the books I select…don’t want you to miss getting the ones you want. 🙂

These are some that caught my eye:

When H*ll Was in Session
by Admiral Jeremiah Denton

Stuff You Should Know About Stuff: How to Properly Behave in Certain Situations
by Tyler Stanton and Tripp Crosby

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Crying
by Carol Leifer

Lean UX: Applying Lean Principles to Improve User Experience
by Jeff Gothelf and Josh Seiden

Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa
by Jason Stearns

Hackers & Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age
by Paul Graham

Brain Rules (Updated and Expanded): 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School
by John Medina

The Philosopher and the Wolf: Lessons from the Wild on Love, Death, and Happiness
by Mark Rowlands

Building Wireless Sensor Networks: with ZigBee, XBee, Arduino, and Processing
by Robert Faludi

Hi-de-ho: The Life of Cab Calloway
by Alyn Shipton

Doing Data Science: Straight Talk from the Frontline
by Cathy O’Neil and Rachel Schutt

Mathew Brady: Portraits of a Nation
by Robert Wilson

Making Things See: 3D vision with Kinect, Processing, Arduino, and MakerBot
by Greg Borenstein

Mandela
by Martin Meredith

Forecast: What Physics, Meteorology, and the Natural Sciences Can Teach Us About Economics
by Mark Buchanan

How to Succeed in Hollywood: A Field Guide for Christian Screenwriters, Actors, Producers, Directors, and More…
by Baehr Ted

Guillain-Barre Syndrome (American Academy of Neurology Press Quality of Life Guide Series)
by Gareth J. Parry MB ChB FRACP and Joel S. MD, PhD, FICA Steinberg

Safe Stardom: How to Protect Your Children on Their Road to Fame
by Robert Pafundi and Caitlin Sanchez

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: A Guide for Patients and Families:Third Edition
by Hiroshi MD Mitsumoto

What?: Are These the 20 Most Important Questions in Human History–Or Is This a Game of 20 Questions?
by Mark Kurlansky

Whatever Happened to the Metric System?: How America Kept Its Feet
by John Bemelmans Marciano

Beasts: What Animals Can Teach Us About the Origins of Good and Evil
by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson

Richard Dawkins: How a scientist changed the way we think
by Alan Grafen and Mark Ridley

Designing Science Presentations: A Visual Guide to Figures, Papers, Slides, Posters, and More
by Matt Carter

The Leader’s Checklist: 15 Mission-Critical Principles
by Michael Useem

The Music of Joni Mitchell
by Lloyd Whitesell

The Elephant in the Room: Silence and Denial in Everyday Life
by Eviatar Zerubavel

Coming up Roses: The Broadway Musical in the 1950s
by Ethan Mordden

Galileo in Rome: The Rise and Fall of a Troublesome Genius
by William R. Shea and Mariano Artigas

Dive Deeper: Journeys with Moby-Dick
by George Cotkin

The Next Nightmare: How Political Correctness Will Destroy America
by Peter Feaman

Organic Chemistry Demystified 2/E
by Daniel Bloch

The New Oxford Book of Literary Anecdotes (Oxford Books of Prose & Verse)
by John Gross

Michael Jackson: Man Behind the Mirror
by Raamayan Ananda

Obstetric Triage and Emergency Care Protocols
by Diane J. Angelini and Donna LaFontaine

The Talking Ape: How Language Evolved (Studies in the Evolution of Language)
by Robbins Burling

How to Read a Word
by Elizabeth Knowles

Fabulous Science: Fact and Fiction in the History of Scientific Discovery
by John Waller

Humor 101 (Psych 101)
by Mitch Earleywine PhD

Totally Weird and Wonderful Words
by Erin McKean

Copyright’s Paradox
by Neil Weinstock Netanel

Using Superheroes in Counseling and Play Therapy
by Lawrence C. Rubin and Rubin, Lawrence C., PhD, LMHC, RPT-S

The Essential Martin Luther King, Jr.: “I Have a Dream” and Other Great Writings (King Legacy)
by Martin Luther King Jr and Clayborne Carson

Uninhibited, Robust, and Wide-Open : A Free Press for a New Century (Inalienable Rights)
by Lee C. Bollinger

Digitized: The science of computers and how it shapes our world
by Peter J. Bentley

France Since 1945
by Robert Gildea

Enjoy!

Join more than a thousand readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

I bought my Echo through AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.  Shop ’til you help!  By the way, it’s been interesting lately to see Amazon remind me to “start at AmazonSmile” if I check a link on the original Amazon site. I do buy from AmazonSmile, but I have a lot of stored links I use to check for things.

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other blogs/organizations, buy  Amazon Gift Cards from a link on the site, then use those to buy your items. There will be no cost to you, and a benefit to them.

Review: new $79 Kindle

Review: new $79 Kindle

7th generation entry level Kindle: “Mindle Touch” (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

I’ve had the opportunity to do a hands-on exploration of the new Kindle.

Let me start out by saying that this is a considerable improvement over the former $69 Kindle, thanks both to the touch screen and the quality of the display.

If what you want is an inexpensive device for reading, this will work well.

In fact, comparing the same text of the same edition of the same book with the  same settings (font size 4, Caecillia) with the more expensive Kindle Paperwhite 2 (with the light turned all the way down), the KP7 (on the top) is easier to read:

The background seems lighter and the text seems thicker…that seems odd, because there are more PPI (Pixels Per Inch) on the Paperwhite…they are doing something different to optimize the appearance.

The device itself feels light, which is a goal for people. Irrationally, it also makes it feel a bit cheap…it definitely feels like plastic.

Another “feel” issue is that it is a tiny bit wider than the previous version, which would take a bit of getting used to, although it is only slightly wider (2mm…a tenth of an inch) and slightly thicker than the Paperwhite.

I think, though, it may feel wider than the Paperwhite in part because of the clear bevel of the edges:

The KP7 is on your left, the Paperwhite on your right. The PW slopes away smoothly. The K7 has a perpendicular edge, and then it slopes. That’s kind of geeky, I know, but the bottom line is that where you are holding it is thicker. It’s not enough for me to be a problem, but I would say it is slightly less comfortable.

Other external differences with the Paperwhite include

• The word Kindle on the front of the device is not in silver. Some people actually found the silver distracting when they were reading, so I would say that’s going to be an improvement
• On the back of the new device, it says “Amazon” rather than “Kindle”

What about the software?

It looks very similar to the Paperwhite. The menu on the homescreen has the same choices.

When you tap the Settings choice, they’ve consolidated the Device Time choice into “Personalize your Kindle”…which makes sense (it didn’t need its own menu choice).

Within a book, they’ve changed the order of the menu…but the choices are the same.

“Long press” a word in the book, and again, the choices are essentially the same.

The choices in the store were a bit different. Tapping the menu there, the K7 doesn’t have a Kindle Unlimited choice (although it’s on the screen), and does have “Recommended for You”, which the Paperwhite doesn’t have.

Overall, it’s very much like the Paperwhite 2 in terms of software.

I’ve liked my PW2 very much, and I think people would like this also.

So, the question seems obvious: why pay $40 more for the

Kindle Paperwhite 2 (at AmazonSmile*)

?

The answer is equally obvious: the light.

The built-in light on the Paperwhite is a wonderful thing. It gives me the most comfortable reading experience I’ve ever had, including paper.

However, you may just want to have a guest Kindle, or a “spare”, or something more inexpensive for a young reader. Maybe you are working or going somewhere where you will the risk of loss, theft, or damage is high…and you’d rather bring one that’s easier to replace.

As has been the case with recent non-Fire Kindles, and is the case with all of the non-Fire Kindles being sold new by Amazon, including the top of the line

Kindle Voyage (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

the K7 does not have sound: no audiobooks, no music, and no text-to-speech. Personally, I’d like to see that as a choice: TTS is a big part of my life (I listen to it typically for hours a week in the car), and I’d be fine with it being done without onboard speakers (just a headphone jack, so I can plug it into the car’s sound system, or listen with headphones at home).

Bottom line: the K7 is a fine basic reader, $40 less than the Kindle Paperwhite 2, and an improvement over the previous “entry level” model. It has up-to-date features in the software. Some people will want to pay more for the light, and others will choose to pay $120 more for the top of the line Voyage.

If you have any specific questions about the device, feel free to ask by commenting on this post. I will probably have it for a few more days, while I document a bit more about it.

 Join hundreds of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.  Shop ’til you help!  

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other blogs/organizations, buy  Amazon Gift Cards from a link on the site, then use those to buy your items. There will be no cost to you, and a benefit to them.

Books on my Kindles #2 (part 4)

Books on my Kindles #2 (part 4)

This is a continuation of a recent series of posts:

• Books on my Kindles #2 (part 1)
• Books on my Kindles #2 (part 2)
• Books on my Kindles #2 (part 3)

in which I list and talk about the books I currently have downloaded to my Kindles. For more information on this, see that first post linked above.

Listed in the previous posts:

• The City on the Edge of Forever (at AmazonSmile*)
• Soft-Wired: How the New Science of Brain Plasticity Can Change your Life (at AmazonSmile*)
• These Are The Voyages, TOS, Season One ( Season One Book 1)(at AmazonSmile*)
• These are the Voyages – TOS: Season Two (at AmazonSmile*)
• Ghosts: True Encounters with the World Beyond (at AmazonSmile*)
• The Painted Word: A Treasure Chest of Remarkable Words and Their Origins (at AmazonSmile*)
• Wild and Untamed Thing: Richard O’Brien – the LOST interview (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping)
• Flying Saucer to the Center of Your Mind: Selected Writings of John A. Keel (at AmazonSmile*)
• THE ROAD TO LOCH NESS (The Kodiak Books) (at AmazonSmile*)
• Batman Eternal (2014- ) #1 (at AmazonSmile*)
• Habit Stacking: 97 Small Life Changes That Take Five Minutes or Less(at AmazonSmile*)
• Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (the one I have isn’t available any more, so no linking)
• The Rise of the Humans: How to outsmart the digital deluge (at AmazonSmile*)
• Emotional Intelligence 2.0 (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)
• A Game of Thrones 4-Book Bundle: A Song of Ice and Fire Series: A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, and A Feast for Crows (at AmazonSmile*)
• Horns: A Novel (at AmazonSmile*)
• This Explains Everything: 150 Deep, Beautiful, and Elegant Theories of How the World Works (at AmazonSmile*)
• This Will Make You Smarter: 150 New Scientific Concepts to Improve Your Thinking (This Will Make You Smarter: 150 New Scientific Concepts to Improve Your Thinking)
• The Battle of $9.99: How Apple, Amazon, and the Big Six Publishers Changed the E-Book Business Overnight (Kindle Single) (at AmazonSmile*))
• A Long Way To Contentment (at AmazonSmile*)
• Crash Gordon and the Revelations from Big Sur (at AmazonSmile*)

More books…

What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions (at AmazonSmile*)
by Randall Monroe
4.8 stars out of 5, 145 customer reviews
65% done
borrowed through Kindle Unlimited

I’m enjoying this one a lot! The author (of the xkcd.com blog) takes bizarre hypothetical questions and explains with solid science as to whether or not they would work or what would happen. For example, if every human on Earth stayed away from all other humans for a couple of weeks, would the common cold die out? Monroe explains why it wouldn’t work…do you know why? Yes, there is math here, but you can gloss over it if you want. Importantly, there is also dry humor and wry cartoons (drawn by Monroe). Amazon has been promoting this book, and it’s been in People Magazine…it’s #57 paid in the Kindle store. That’s exactly the kind of book a lot of people want to see in Kindle Unlimited (which it is). Might also make a good gift. If you want to buy it, I’d suggest you list it at eReaderIQ.com. There may be price wars on this one, and eReaderIQ will send you a free e-mail when it goes down an amount you specify.

The Mind Boggles: A Unique Book of Quotations (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)
by Bufo Calvin (yes, that’s me)
3.2 stars, 4 customer reviews
finished
purchased for $0.99

This is the only one of my books that I generally keep on all my devices…I do use the quotations from time to time when I write, so I like to have it handy.

How To Get Instant Trust, Belief, Influence and Rapport! 13 Ways To Create Open Minds By Talking To The Subconscious Mind (at AmazonSmile*)
by Tom “Big Al” Schreiter
4.7 stars, 176 reviews
not started
purchased for $2.99

This is one of those I buy so I can read something that connects to work (I like to always be doing that).

The Complete Wizard of Oz Series (at AmazonSmile*)
by L. Frank Baum
4.3 stars, 316 reviews
re-reading
purchased for $0.99

I have more than one Oz collection (I’m a huge fan), and this is one I like. I’m actually re-reading it on my Paperwhite…planning to go straight through, then start over (I read it before I go to sleep). I’ve never been much of a re-reader, but I wanted to experiment with it. 🙂 I’d really like to know it inside out, which used to be easier for me than it is now. I’ve been writing a few Oz things, and that would help. However, I really don’t read it on this device (my Kindle Fire HDX) right now, so I’ll probably take it off.

Kong: King of Skull Island (at AmazonSmile*)
by Brad Strickland, Joe DeVito, John Michlig, Ray Harryhausen (Introduction)
4.3 stars, 32 reviews
1% read
gift

I haven’t really started this one yet. It was a gift, and I am looking forward to reading it.

Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer (at AmazonSmile*)
by John Grisham
4.0 stars, 817 customer reviews
not started
purchased for $5.99

My Significant Other like Grisham (and other legal novels), and bought this kids’ book by the popular author. I intend to read it at some point.

Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life (at AmazonSmile*)
Philip José Farmer
4.5 stars, 24 reviews
will re-read
purchased for $5.99

This was a gift. I’ve read this before, and it was great! I wanted to have it on my Fire, as a resource. They are writing new Doc Savage novels, and if I ever did write one some day, that would really be a fantasy for me. Doc is one of my literary heroes.

A Christmas Carol (the version I have is no longer available, so no link)
by Charles Dickens
got free

I’m not sure why I have this on my Fire right now…I’ll remove it.

Delightfully Twisted Tales: Close Encounters of the Worst Kind (Volume One) (at AmazonSmile*)
by Nicky Drayden
4.0 stars, 11 customer reviews
19% done
got for free

I like short stories, so I thought I’d give this one a shot. I’d probably have to restart it…don’t recall much about it.

The Dumb Bunnies (at AmazonSmile*)
by Dav Pilkey
4.3 stars, 65 customer reviews
15% done
purchased for $5.42

Pilkey (Captain Underpants, Dog Breath) can do hilarious children’s books (we liked Dog Breath a lot in our house). I think I bought this in part because I was testing something in the formatting.

Batman ’66 #1 (Batman ’66) (at AmazonSmile*))
by Jeff Parker (Author), Jonathan Case (Illustrator)
3.9 stars, 28 customer reviews
finished
got for free

In a bit of an Ouroborus, this is a comic book based on a TV show based on a comic book. 🙂 I’ve finished it…I’ll remove it. It stars Frank Gorshin’s version of the Riddler…his manic performance in the first episodes really helped make the show a success. Gorshin was Emmy nominated for the part. The writing isn’t as clever as the series, and they take the advantage of the medium to do more set pieces, but it was worth reading.

Polaris of the Snows (at AmazonSmile*)
by Charles B. Stilson
4.5 stars, 2 customer reviews
not started
got for free

I’ve heard that this book, from 1917, might be a precedent for Doc Savage (which started in 1933). Looking forward to seeing how it might line up.

Nikola Tesla: Imagination and the Man That Invented the 20th Century (at AmazonSmile*)
by Sean Patrick
4.1 stars, 2369 reviews
not started
got for free

Tesla’s a remarkable person, and there is a lot of mythology involved. I’m interested in seeing what this book has to say.

Wool Omnibus Edition (Wool 1 – 5) (Silo Saga) (at AmazonSmile*)
by Hugh Howey
29% done
purchased for $1.99

I’d heard of Wool when Amazon introduced Kindle Worlds. This was a great price for it, and I knew the reviews were good…so I thought I’d try it, and see if I might want to write in that world. I have enjoyed what I’ve read so far, and I’m using it as sort of backup book…one to go to when I’m between things. Howey is now perhaps the most prominent of the pro-Amazon authors in the Hachazon-Amazon dispute (which I call the Hachazon War).

Whew!

That takes care of my

Kindle Fire HDX (at AmazonSmile*)

As to our

Kindle Paperwhite (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

I’m currently using the “guest Kindle”. I dropped my Mindle and did break it, so this has become my household non-Fire Kindle. The only thing I’m reading on it is the Oz collection above. There are a lot of other books on it, to make it simple for guests who use it. You can see those here:

On our guest Kindle

Well, I hope you’ve found this listing interesting! It might give you some inspiration for books for yourself or as gifts…and it does give you a bit of insight into me, which I think some of you want.

Any comments? Do you like it when I do these? Feel free to let me and my readers know by commenting on this post.

 Join hundreds of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.  Shop ’til you help!  

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other blogs/organizations, buy  Amazon Gift Cards from a link on the site, then use those to buy your items. There will be no cost to you, and a benefit to them.

Books on my Kindles #2 (part 3)

Books on my Kindles #2 (part 3)

This is a continuation of a recent series of posts:

• Books on my Kindles #2 (part 1)
• Books on my Kindles #2 (part 2)

in which I list and talk about the books I currently have downloaded to my Kindles. For more information on this, see that first post linked above.

Listed in the previous posts:

• The City on the Edge of Forever (at AmazonSmile*)
• Soft-Wired: How the New Science of Brain Plasticity Can Change your Life (at AmazonSmile*)
• These Are The Voyages, TOS, Season One ( Season One Book 1) (at AmazonSmile*)
• These are the Voyages – TOS: Season Two (at AmazonSmile*)
• Ghosts: True Encounters with the World Beyond (at AmazonSmile*)
• The Painted Word: A Treasure Chest of Remarkable Words and Their Origins (at AmazonSmile*)
• Wild and Untamed Thing: Richard O’Brien – the LOST interview (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping)
• Flying Saucer to the Center of Your Mind: Selected Writings of John A. Keel (at AmazonSmile*)
• THE ROAD TO LOCH NESS (The Kodiak Books) (at AmazonSmile*)
• Batman Eternal (2014- ) #1 (at AmazonSmile*)
• Habit Stacking: 97 Small Life Changes That Take Five Minutes or Less(at AmazonSmile*)
• Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (the one I have isn’t available any more, so no linking)
• The Rise of the Humans: How to outsmart the digital deluge (at AmazonSmile*)

More books…

Emotional Intelligence 2.0 (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)
by Travis Bradberry & Jean Greaves
3.9 out of five stars, 319 customer reviews
12% done
bought for $1.99

I’ll be interested to see how I come out on this. I’m not a very emotional (I tend to stay on a pretty even keel) person, but I do think I’m pretty good at understanding other people’s emotions. I think that empathetic sense helps me as a trainer, and when I was hiring trainers, it’s one of the things I sought in candidates. I’ve been stalled on this one because it wants me to take an online test to set a baseline, and I just haven’t gotten around to that. There is a basic concept at work here, that there are many kinds of “intelligence”. I wrote a paper in high school on “optimum IQ”, in which I argued that the highest IQ wasn’t necessarily the best one, in terms of success in the world. Obviously, I’m not the only person to have thought that. This quotation, which I have in my book of quotations, The Mind Boggles: A Unique Book of Quotations (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*), gives one perspective:

Cassie Hughes (played by Christina Cole): “So, what’s it like being so wise?”
Azazeal (played by Michael Fassbender): “Well…obviously, it makes normal life difficult. The trouble is, you see everything before everyone else, and then you have to wait for them to catch up.”
Cassie: “That must be very frustrating.”
Asazeal: “You’ve no idea.”
–Possession episode of
Hex
screenplay by Julian Jones

A Game of Thrones 4-Book Bundle: A Song of Ice and Fire Series: A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, and A Feast for Crows (at AmazonSmile*)
by George R.R. Martin
4.4 stars, 390 reviews
8% done
purchased for $15.72

No, I’ve never seen the series. 🙂 We don’t have HBO, and while I probably would try it if it eventually became free or “no additional cost” (available through Prime Video, for example), I’m not willing to pay for it.

What happened here is that a relative (one generation down) asked me if I’d read it because it was hard to follow and my relative wanted to ask me some questions about it. So, I bought it. 🙂

I’ve only been reading it off and on. I haven’t found it all that engaging and while it does have non-human animals (always a plus for me), it’s quite harsh, which I tend not to prefer. Our adult kid has both read the books and seen the series, and recommended to me watching the series first (a very unusual suggestion from that source), since it gave you more of a “road map”, which made the books easier to follow. I’m a bit torn, because of that…our adult kid is very wise. 🙂

Horns: A Novel (at AmazonSmile*)
by Joe Hill
4.2 stars, 1153 reviews
not yet started
bought for $1.99

With the Daniel Radcliffe-starring, Alexandre Aja-directed version opening in the USA at Halloween, I was intrigued…and picked this up on sale.

How To Get Instant Trust, Belief, Influence and Rapport! 13 Ways To Create Open Minds By Talking To The Subconscious Mind (at AmazonSmile*)
by Tom “Big Al” Schreiter
4.7 stars, 175 reviews
not yet started
bought for $2.99

Using “Big Al” as a nickname didn’t immediately gain my trust or belief, but we’ll see how the book goes. 😉

This Explains Everything: 150 Deep, Beautiful, and Elegant Theories of How the World Works (at AmazonSmile*)
by John Brockman
4.0 stars, 97 reviews
not yet started
bought for $1.99

“The great tragedy of Science: the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.”
–Thomas Henry Huxley

That quotation is paraphrased a lot, but I would also say that’s the beauty of science…you want your hypotheses knocked down by facts: that’s why they are there. 😉

I’m looking forward to starting this one, when the timing is right.

This Will Make You Smarter: 150 New Scientific Concepts to Improve Your Thinking (This Will Make You Smarter: 150 New Scientific Concepts to Improve Your Thinking)
by John Brockman
3.8 stars, 148 reviews
bought for $2.99
0% (still in the front matter)

That’s not like me! I didn’t even realize until now that these were both by the same author. 🙂 I will say, though, as I check the prices, I got some good deals! This one is currently $8.81. Now, though, I’m much more likely to just get something through Kindle Unlimited, so books being on sale won’t tempt me as much.

The Battle of $9.99: How Apple, Amazon, and the Big Six Publishers Changed the E-Book Business Overnight (Kindle Single) (at AmazonSmile*))
by Andrew Richard Albanese
3.8 stars, 138 reviews
Got it as a gift

Not sure why this one is still on my Fire. 🙂 I got this Kindle single as a gift at the holidays, and I have read it. I’ll remove it after this. You can read my review of it on Goodreads

here

A Long Way To Contentment (at AmazonSmile*)
by Boyd Lemon
4.4 stars, 9 reviews
bought for $0.99
not yet started

This one was purchased by Significant Other…probably give it a shot when my SO is reading it, so we can talk about it afterwards.

Crash Gordon and the Revelations from Big Sur (at AmazonSmile*)
by Derek Swannson
4.4 stars, 42 reviews
bought it for $3.99

I was able to help with this in the pre-publication phase, doing proofreading and making some editorial suggestions. For that reason, I don’t want to say too much about it (although I don’t have any financial connection to the book, and I don’t have a relationship with Derek outside of having read the first book, reviewed it, and then helped with the second gratis). Both books are available through KU.

Here’s my review of the first book, which will give you some idea:

Review: Crash Gordon and the Mysteries of Kingsburg

I think that’s enough for this post! One more ought to catch us up.

By the way, my SO used KU for the first time….and borrowed a couple of cookbooks and got a couple of recipes…that’s an excellent use of it, in my mind.

Join hundreds of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.  Shop ’til you help!  

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other blogs/organizations, buy  Amazon Gift Cards from a link on the site, then use those to buy your items. There will be no cost to you, and a benefit to them.

Books on my Kindles #2 (part 2)

Books on my Kindles #2 (part 2)

This is a continuation of a recent post

Books on my Kindles #2 (part 1)

in which I list and talk about the books I currently have downloaded to my Kindles. For more information on this, see that first post linked above.

Wild and Untamed Thing: Richard O’Brien – the LOST interview (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping)
by Phil South
5 stars out of 5, 1 customer review
borrowed through Kindle Unlimited
not yet started

It’s been about forty (!) years since The Rocky Horror Picture Show was first released in the USA. When I first saw it, there was just a handful of people in the audience, and the whole audience immersion part of it hadn’t happened yet. I’d had it recommended to me by someone who knew my fondness for the Universal Horror movies of the 1930s and 1940s (and to which it pays homage). It was fascinating to see the development of the “cult” over the years, as I went back to see it many times. It went from people spontaneously shouting at the screen, to ritualized mass repetition of the same audience-spoken lines…often with the original meaning diluted. My Significant Other, by the way, had never seen it when we met…and in fact, jokingly suggested that as an epitaph: “Here lies — — who never saw Rocky Horror”. 😉 When I was looking to get to the maximum ten simultaneous borrows for

Kindle Unlimited (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

so I could test something, I happened to stumble across this one. It made sense: it’s a transcription of an interview with the creator (and one of the stars) of Rocky Horror, first as a stage show, then on-screen. I look forward to reading it.

This is a case where the publisher will make a lot more money because I borrowed it through KU than if I had bought it, since it is priced at $0.99. The publisher (which could be just the author) would get about $0.35 if I bought it…and while we don’t have the exact figure yet (it’s based on a pool of money which is divided dependent on the number of borrows there are), it is likely to be upwards of $2.

Flying Saucer to the Center of Your Mind: Selected Writings of John A. Keel (at AmazonSmile*)
by John A. Keel (edited by Andrew Colvin…no relation, and not spelled the same) 😉
4.5 stars, eleven reviews
borrowed through Kindle Unlimited
not yet started

Ah, John Keel…it’s a bit hard to describe this writer, and how big the influence of Keel’s books has been (not just on me, but on many people). Keel was the clear inspiration for Carl Kolchak on The Night Stalker, and of Alva Keel in the lamentably short-lived Miracles TV series (at AmazonSmile*). Keel brings this odd synergy of ordinariness in the midst of “high strangeness”. Just as in the Darren McGavin performance, Keel comes across as no superhero, or Sherlock Holmesian genius, yet encounters Mothman and the Men-in-Black (and popularized both). Keel’s greatest book (which became a New York Times bestseller) The Mothman Prophecies (at AmazonSmile*), and several others, are available in the Kindle store…but the classics aren’t available through Kindle Unlimited. This book collects articles by Keel: I suspect I will have read some of them, however, many of the magazines which would have carried Keel were not widely available (even to someone like me who collected a lot of “Forteana”). Thanks, e-books!

THE ROAD TO LOCH NESS (The Kodiak Books) (at AmazonSmile*)
by Lee Murphy
5 stars out of 5, three customer reviews
not yet started

While this book is available through Kindle Unlimited, I got it when it was recently free (and I flipped that information into the free The Measured Circle magazine at Flipboard, so I’m guessing some of my readers did as well). Murphy writes a series of novels involving cryptids (reported animals not recognized by science, like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster), starring George Kodiak. I’ve read one of them…not burning to read another one, but I probably will eventually. 🙂

Batman Eternal (2014- ) #1 (at AmazonSmile*)
by Scott Snyder, James Tunion IV, Ray Fawkes, John Layman, Tim Seeley, Jason Fabok
4.1 stars, 68 customer reviews
gotten as a freebie
7%

I don’t read many comics nowadays, although I used to read them a lot. I had told you about this freebie when San Diego Comic Con was starting this year, so I assume some of you got it as well.

Habit Stacking: 97 Small Life Changes That Take Five Minutes or Less (at AmazonSmile*)
by S.J. Scott
3.9 stars, 212 customer reviews
borrowed through Kindle Unlimited
completed

This is one of those books I borrowed to be reading something that ties into work (I actually report that regularly to my boss, as part of “personal/professional development”). It’s not bad: very bite size, and the structure of how to build habits is more significant than the habits themselves…which is important.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (the one I have isn’t available any more, so no linking)
by Lewis Carroll
4.2 stars, 1672 reviews
gotten as a freebie
51% right now, but I’ve finished it

I keep this one on my Kindles to demo stuff for people. It’s in the public domain, so there aren’t any copyright concerns (if you used text-to-speech in a public setting with a book under copyright protection, for example, you could be infringing on the public performance right). Since I’m not really reading it currently, I don’t care if they leave it in a different place in the book, so it works well to just let somebody play with it. 🙂

The Rise of the Humans: How to outsmart the digital deluge (at AmazonSmile*)
by Dave Coplin
2.7 stars, 3 customer reviews
not yet started
gotten as a freebie

This is another one I got to read as a “work book”. Haven’t started it yet. The low ratings aren’t encouraging me, but I’ll likely try it eventually.

To be continued…

Bonus deal

My apologies that this is so late: I know some of you may miss it. On the other hand, that’s always true, since I have readers around the world…even if the deal is good in their countries (which is often not the case), the timezones would cause problems as to when the deal was available.

One of today’s Kindle Daily Deals is five Sookie Stackhouse novels (including the first one) for $1.99 each. You can buy as many as you want of the five, paying $1.99 for each one. This is clearly a tie-in to the finale of the True Blood series, which is based on these books (but the story lines really diverged).

I would have gotten it out sooner, but my Significant Other is an Insurance Claims Manager, and had to go into the office to deal with the earthquake in Napa, which through off the timing. We live in the San Francisco Bay Area (although not that near Napa), and really felt it this morning, but there wasn’t any damage here.

Hopefully, some of you can take advantage of this.

These books are not currently available through Kindle Unlimited or the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library.

Enjoy!

Join hundreds of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.  Shop ’til you help!  

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other blogs/organizations, buy  Amazon Gift Cards from a link on the site, then use those to buy your items. There will be no cost to you, and a benefit to them.

Books on my Kindles #2 (part 1)

Books on my Kindles #2

Books on my Kindles is a series of posts where I list what books I currently have on my devices.

This listing is quite a bit different from the last one.

One reason for that is

Kindle Unlimited (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

I normally only keep about ten Kindle store books on any of my devices at a time. I like to keep my devices lean if I can: I do think they run better. So, even though I could hypothetically have over 5,000 e-books on my

Kindle Fire HDX (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

for example, I normally don’t carry more than I need with me (and being an inveterate book lover who reads multiple books at a time, “need” means ten or so). 🙂

I was testing something with KU, though, and needed to get to the limit…so I borrowed ten books. I didn’t have to download them all to my Fire, but I think I did.

The other big thing, as I mentioned last time, is that this is kind of hard for me to do. I know people judge people by what they read…both in good ways and in bad. This particular grouping (I did not manipulate them before writing the post) leans pretty heavily in the geeky direction. I am a proud geek, but I also mention on here that I’m an eclectic reader. This grouping won’t look much like that: it seems like much of a muchness, as I glance at it at first. Still, as a bit of a random snapshot, I’ll go with what’s here. There are too many to really list in one post, so I’ll take a few to go through them.

Not counting the dictionaries that come with the device, magazines, items filed under Docs rather than Books, here are the first of the 37 Kindle store titles in descending order of most recent (most recent first):

The City on the Edge of Forever (at AmazonSmile*)
by Harlan Ellison
borrowed through Kindle Unlimited
47% complete

I borrowed this one Wednesday morning, because a couple of my readers (Allie D., jjhitt) and I have been talking about Harlan Ellison after I recently listed a Kindle Daily Deal with Hugo Award winning and nominated books.

There’s a lot of controversy over Ellison’s script (and pre-scripts) for The City on the Edge of Forever, which became an episode of the original Star Trek…and cited by various sources as one of the best.

As regular readers know, I’m not fond of vituperation, and Ellison certainly isn’t hesitant about it.

Ellison’s version of the events does sound…plausible, for the most part, with appropriate details. The way the author describes it and characterizes other people does make me less sympathetic, though.

One interesting point: Ellison (and other sources which can be seen) quote Gene Roddenberry as saying, “He had my Scotty selling drugs…” The script and treatments are in the book, and that’s not it.

However, Ellison also says, “Geezus bleeding Kee-rist on a crutch! Scotty doesn’t even appear in the g*ddam script!” (I added the asterisk, even though the author left out the “n”).

Perhaps not in the script, but in the first version in the book, there are a few references to the “SCOTTISH ENGINEERING OFFICER”, who participates in a court martial with Kirk, Spock, and “THE MEDIC”.

That isn’t in one of the actual script versions, and it isn’t Scotty by name…and, most importantly, that’s not “selling drugs”, but I think it’s not unreasonable for someone to think Scotty was in Ellison’s story based on that.

At this point in reading it, I’d say that Ellison wrote well, and not inexpertly for the medium…but the feel is certainly not Star Trek (it lacks the optimism about the future), and the characterizations aren’t on target (although they improve in successive versions which are in the book).

Soft-Wired: How the New Science of Brain Plasticity Can Change your Life (at AmazonSmile*)
by Michael Merzenich
borrowed through Kindle Unlimited
6% complete

This one was recommended to me by a physical therapist (who wasn’t treating me…I was training the PT) who thought it might be useful for me. The main point is the idea that the brain can be changed…I’m not far enough into it to judge it well, yet. I like to always be reading something that can relate to my day job, and that’s the one right now…

These are the Voyages – TOS: Season Two (at AmazonSmile*)
by Marc Cushman with Susan Osborn
4% done
borrowed from Kindle Unlimited

I really enjoyed the first one of these! At times, it was a day by day “biography” of the original Star Trek (which is where I got the “other side” view of The City on the Edge of Forever), and quite well done. Again, not really far enough into this one to judge, but I’m enjoying it so far.

These Are The Voyages, TOS, Season One ( Season One Book 1) (at AmazonSmile*)
by Marc Cushman
100% done

I just haven’t deleted this one yet, because I still want to write up a review at my Goodreads account:

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/3037617-bufo-calvin

I’ve been doing an okay job of keeping up with that, but things have been super busy lately. I’ll catch up. 🙂

Ghosts: True Encounters with the World Beyond (at AmazonSmile*)
by Hans Holzer
50% done

I really like this book! I’ve always enjoyed Holzer, and have suggested elsewhere someone could do a good TV series based on the original “ghost hunter”. This is kind of an emergency book for me…I go to it from time to time between other books, and maybe on a long drive. I always enjoy it.

The Painted Word: A Treasure Chest of Remarkable Words and Their Origins (at AmazonSmile*)
by Phil Cousineau
100% done

Another one I just need to review. I was disappointed in this one. I love words, and books about words. I just didn’t find it that engaging. It was also weird to read this: “…it’s hard not to hear the echo of Sly and the Family Stone’s funkadelic song ‘Play that funky music right, boy!…'” Um…I don’t think that’s quite the right lyric, which then makes me doubt the scholarship of the rest of the book. It’s also not the right band, from what I know, but I haven’t checked to see if there was a “cover” by Sly. By the way, do you know why they are called “cover” versions? Originally, it was because radio stations and certainly stores didn’t want to play music by African American artists. So, the songs would be re-recorded by Caucasian American artists…putting a more “marketable” face literally on the cover of the record. It always surprises me a bit that many people don’t seem to know that nowadays, and blithely use the term “cover”. It has changed over time, though, and I can accept that it has a different meaning now.

That’s enough for part 1!

Not all of the books will get this much coverage (and I wrote the big introduction in this post), so I think I can do this in…two to three more posts, most likely.

What do you think? Any comments on these books? Do you enjoy somebody being caustic? I can’t deny having liked Simon Cowell. 😉 Do you want to just list the books on your Kindle (or, say, ten of them)? Feel free to let me and my readers know what you think by commenting on this post.

Join hundreds of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.  Shop ’til you help!  

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other blogs/organizations, buy  Amazon Gift Cards from a link on the site, then use those to buy your items. There will be no cost to you, and a benefit to them.

The Scribd reading experience

The Scribd reading experience

I recently wrote about Scribd now having a

Kindle Fire (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

app for their “all you can read” for $8.99 a month subser (subscription service).

I’m in the midst of the free trial (and have almost finished a book on it), and I thought I’d give you some feedback on how it is as a reader.

My general impression is that it is a good, bare bones reader.

It’s interesting to me how I am missing some things which I never had with a p-book (paperbook), though, and which I do use when reading in the Kindle application on my Fire or on one of our non-Fire readers.

Especially noticeable to me are the lack of:

• Text-to-speech. At this point, that by itself will keep me from renewing. While I have a philosophical objection to publishers blocking text-to-speech, I don’t think it’s necessary for every device or app to have it. It is impractical for me not to have it, though. I use it often in the car, and I almost feel like I only have half the book without it
• Dictionary look-up. I don’t use that all that often, but there is no kind of look-up (web or otherwise) that I can see
• Highlighting. I’ve held my finger on the screen several times not thinking about it, wanting to highlight a passage. That might be because it was an interesting quotation, or because there was a minor error (this book is well proof-read) about which I might want to notify the publisher
• Bookmarking
• Notes

You have the text on the “page”…that’s about it.

Even “long pressing” a picture didn’t seem to do anything…I don’t think it has a zoom function.

On the good side, there are controls over the appearance of that text, and navigation controls.

I think my favorite feature is one that the Kindle doesn’t have: “pages left in chapter”. Rather than pages, that’s actually a reference to the number of screens that are left…and if I change the text size, the number adjusts. Interestingly, that’s the most useful measure I’ve found…the amount of time I have left in a chapter just doesn’t seem to be very accurate. I often leave my Kindle open on a screen while I do things, and I think that might be throwing it off.

Speaking of increasing the text size, you do get some good controls there. Tapping in the middle of the page invokes some controls.

One looks like a book, and brings up the Table of Contents (in at least the book I am reading now, you can use it for navigation).

In your bottom right, there is an Aa button, similar to Amazon. Tapping that, I can increase or decrease the text size (there appear to be fourteen options), choose from Default, Sans-serif, or Serif typefaces, and choose white, black, or sepia backgrounds. I’ve been reading the default text on a black background, and it is crisp.

You have the ability to download the book to the device, so you can read offline. That is an icon in your bottom right that looks like a cloud with down arrow on it.

At the top of the screen (after you tap the page), there is a library symbol (three books), with which you can add it to or take it away from your “favorites”. There is a sharing symbol, which lets you like it on Scribd, e-mail it, or “other”. I haven’t played around with that much…e-mailing it would be information about the book, presumably.

So, I would describe it as being all about the reading, without the ability to annotate (or listen to TTS).

Would I pay the $8.99 if they had TTS? Maybe…my Significant Other hasn’t really checked it out enough yet to give me the impression of a less techy user.

The book I’m reading, by the way, is

Crash: When UFOs Fall From the Sky: A History of Famous Incidents, Conspiracies, and Cover-Ups (at AmazonSmile)

by Kevin Randle. Randle is going through all sorts of reported UFO crashes, and generally dismisses them for various reasons, or simply lists them without endorsing them.

The author is a recognized expert on the Roswell Incident and has been seen as an advocate of the reality of an extraordinary event there.

It’s interesting, therefore, that even though this is what we used to call a “seed catalog” type listing, it certainly doesn’t come across as the work of a simple true believer.

Randle writes more about some of the cases, including Shag Harbor and Kecksburg. I would describe the writing as largely intentionally dispassionate, which isn’t all that common (from Skeptics or true believers) in this field. I find that refreshing, although some of the customer reviews on Amazon describe it as “boring”. 😉

I also want to mention that I’ve started to look into

Entitle

another e-book subser, recently promoted on the Ellen Degeneres show.

It’s a very different concept, much more like Amazon’s own Audible.

You pay a flat rate a month, and can get a certain number of e-books.

For example, you can pay $9.99 a month and get two books. That’s pretty much how it works: about $5 per book, with a strict limit as to how many books you get.

However, you do own the books. If you stop paying, you still get them…so, in a way, it’s like getting an AmazonLocal coupon.

The selection seems very impressive, and they do have a free trial.

The books use the Adobe DRM (Digital Rights Management) system, but they do have an app for a Kindle Fire (hm…I wonder if that app would allow you to read other Adobe DRM books on your Fire?).

I haven’t tested this all much, yet, but I thought I’d let you know. 🙂

Nominate a child to be given a free Kindle at Give a Kid a Kindle.

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.  Shop ’til you help!  By the way, it’s been interesting lately to see Amazon remind me to “start at AmazonSmile” if I check a link on the original Amazon site. I do buy from AmazonSmile, but I have a lot of stored links I use to check for things.

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other blogs/organizations, buy  Amazon Gift Cards from a link on the site, then use those to buy your items. There will be no cost to you, and a benefit to them.